Veritas
by Captain Serious
Summary: Catherine Flanery always thought her life would end up plain and simple. However, after a fateful night on Saint Patrick's Day in 1999, Connor MacManus is the reason it would never be anything but plain and surely never simple again.


As Catherine wove around the tables, a light breeze from the Atlantic flowed through her hair. With two plates balanced in her left hand and another in her right, she wore jeans and a t-shirt even though the weather demanded a sweatshirt. March in Boston wasn't as warm as she would have liked but she was growing bored of plain sweaters and jackets. She brought the plates to three men wearing crisp button downs and loosened ties—the closet one to her caught Catherine's eye and smiled. As much as he was trying to pretend he was just a friendly guy offering a friendly gesture, she knew he was watching her fluid movements.

Once she retrieved three more glasses of lemonade, she returned to the waitress's station. Sipping her own water from a transparent plastic straw, Catherine stole a glance at the sight in front of her. It was Patrick's Day and the temperate was hovering somewhere around perfect. The sky above the blue and gave way to a full sun and few white, cotton clouds. A couple of seagulls sat perched on the railing waiting for a patron to feed it a tear of bread or pounce on the crumbs sitting below empty tables. The owner of the ocean-side restaurant hated them. He called them rats with wings—a name few disagreed with.

Catherine began brewing another pot of iced tea and wiping down the station with a damp rag from the bucket under the counter. She felt someone tap her on the back and tossed the rag in the bucket of cleaning solution before turning around. It was Natasha—a young Russian immigrant who had been in Boston and on the job for less than three months. "Can you take another table, Catherine?"

Looking down at the time on her watch, Catherine supposed she could. She had put her request in for a half-day months ago and with her seniority it had been granted. "Yeah, sure, no problem." Natasha buttoned her light jacket as grabbed her purse before wiggling her fingers in a goodbye. On any other given day Catherine would have accepted the table with no hard feelings but tonight was different—she had plans. What Irishwoman didn't have plans on Saint Paddy's?

She had been working at the restaurant for nearly three years. The pay was fair but the tips were better and Catherine had become too attached to small restaurant to leave. She was an intelligent girl and college was out of the question and just as along as she was comfortable, Catherine was happy.

After refilling waters and lemonades, Catherine made her way into the kitchen. One of the cooks, Tommy, winked at her as she grabbed the warm plates sitting beneath the lights. A year ago he had asked her out, and Catherine declined his offer. She wasn't interested in dating and if she was she wouldn't date anyone from the restaurant.

"Doesn't look like it's going to slow down at all." Tommy commented. He was tall and slender with a thick head of blonde hair and the clearest blue eyes Catherine had even seen. She guessed he was a couple years old her than her and still lived with his parents in South Boston.

Sipping a handful of wrapped straws into her back pocket, Catherine placed the four plates in her arms. She was unwilling to use a tray anymore—years of practice had eventually paid off. "It's a nice day. No one wants to be cooped up inside after a long winter."

Tommy loved her accent and how the feistiness in her voice only hardened her words more. "I wouldn't be here though. I'd be at the beach walking along the shore. That's exactly where I'm headed after this."

"That sounds like an idea." Turning on her heels, Catherine smiled warmly and pushed the swinging doors open with her right hip. Back outside the sun began beating down on her face and not before long did she feel a small sweat collect at the base of her neck. By the end of the day her skin surely would be darker—or redder—than what she arrived to work with. Although Catherine constantly reminded herself to buy sunscreen she couldn't fit it into her budget. After utilities, there wasn't much left over on her waitress salary for luxuries.

Bending at the knees, Catherine dropped the four plates on the table which had belonged to Natasha. The amount of business men stopping by the place for an early dinner surprised Catherine. Usually at four o'clock on a weekday afternoon the only people buzzing around were high school kids or mothers with babies in strollers. After asking if there was anything else she could get them, Catherine returned to the station when they replied with a 'no'.

"I think those guys are checking you out." Nikki said while nodding to a table occupied with two men. At first glance most wouldn't guess they were twins. All she could do was shake her head and play along as one of them tossed a goofy expression in her direction. "They're cute; you should go over and take their drink orders—it's my table anyway."

Sliding her hands into her back pockets, Catherine slipped past the other tables. She could hear couples flirting, couples ignoring each other and families. As much as she wanted to sit, she fought the urge to plop down and toss her feet up while being served on. The brothers smiled sheepishly as they wiggled in their chairs. It wasn't often they came around and scoped her out at the restaurant. Mostly they just waited for her in her apartment with a bottle of Jameson and a few packs of cigarettes.

"Couldn't wait until the end of my shift?" Catherine declined Murphy's offer to take a drag from his smoke as he slid his zippo into the pocket of his pea-coat. On a day like today she wondered how they could wear those worn coats.

"No, Murph and I decided to drop by." Connor leaned his elbows on the table and shot a look to his brother as Murphy blew a puff of smoke in to his face. "Wanted to make sure you're still on for tonight."

Catherine tucked her bangs behind her left ear before placing her hands on her hips. She could tell they were anxious to go to the local pub and she appreciated their self-control to wait until her shift ended.

"Of course we're still on for tonight." Catherine ran her fingers through the sandy blonde hair of Connor. It was growing rather long at an alarming rate and she wished he would at some point trim it. "It's Saint Patrick's Day and I wouldn't spend it with anyone other than the two of you."

The smile Catherine possessed was wide and showed off her perfect white teeth. Connor too smiled, but only his formed out of the corner of his mouth. It became painfully obvious to Murphy who sat back in the chair with his right foot propped up on his left knee, that the crush Connor had developed on Catherine nearly a year ago was now possibly full blown love. It was also clear that there was no doubt Catherine reciprocated some sort of schoolgirl crush.

On second thought, Catherine reached out for Murphy's cigarette and blew a stream of smoke up to the cloudy sky. "I've only got about hour until my shift is over. Go have fun and I'll meet you at McGinty's later."

Connor wasn't too enthused with the idea of Catherine walking the dark streets of South Boston, especially on a night when most men were drunk beyond words and not acting in the most chivalrous of ways. It would put his mind as ease to wait until she was done, but his twin brother was far too eager to get his drink on.

Standing up from the table to open it up for other patrons who were actually interested in order a meal, Murphy put his cigarette out as Connor pulled Catherine into a hug and held her for several seconds longer than a hug between two friends should last.

Kissing both her cheeks in farewell, Murphy playfully smacked Catherine's ass to the look of jealously wash over Connor's face. "See 'ya tonight."

Murphy winked.

Catherine only chuckled to herself and returned the goodbye as she headed off to check on her tables.

ooo

McGinty's was packed by the time Catherine walked into the pub. The familiar scents of smoke and Jameson whiskey filled her nostrils giving her the strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that almost felt like a sense of belonging. Before Catherine had picked up and left her roots in the Midwest for South Boston, Catherine had always been a girl in the shadows. At McGinty's, all the regular patrons knew her name and were always happy to see her.

Squeezing her way through the crowed and up to the bar, Catherine was welcomed with hugs, wishes of a happy Saint Patrick's Day and from Murphy MacManus a shot of Irish. Catherine's original intent for the night had been to simply thrown down a few beers before heading home and sleeping off the long work week. It seemed the MacManus brothers had a different plan for her.

Sucking down the warm Irish whiskey, Catherine felt the burn deep within her gut as she stomach churned. She hadn't eaten much that day that the first thing to be put in her stomach most certainly shouldn't have been a shot of potent alcohol. Pulling a menthol cigarette from her pack, Connor was quick with his zippo to light her smoke.

"Hey, Doc!" She called out resting her forearms on the bar. "Get me a beer."

Connor stood up from his barstool and offered the seat to Catherine which took without hesitation. Her feet were beyond sore after having been standing with no rest for the last eight hours.

"Missed 'ya at mass this mornin'."

Connor used the back of his hand to wipe away the foam that had collected on his upper lip after taking a sip from his freshly pulled beer. Having come from an Irish-American family herself, it was a rarity that Catherine missed mass. In fact, the local Catholic Church had been where Catherine first met the twins when she asked to bum a smoke off one of the brothers on a dreary Sunday morning.

She swallowed her mouthful of chewed pretzels before she defended herself. "I was at the restaurant before you two bums were even up this morning."

Connor snarled; he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She hoped it didn't show just how much she not only relaxed but also blushed as she could feel his warm body press against her. The thoughts that filled her head were almost sin as she thought of the things she wished Connor would do to her.

"That's okay." Murphy jumped in. "We'll save ye a seat tomorrow."

Midnight had rolled around quicker than anyone had expected and before they knew it, it was the usual seven of them still hanging.

"I h-h-have something to-to tell you guys." Doc looked at his brood with drunken eyes. "The Russians, they're making me close down the-the-the bar."

"What?!" The seven of them all cried out in unison, not wanting to lose their local watering hole and also concerned about the old man's wellbeing. McGinty's Pub was Doc's life. He had poured every cent he had along with blood, sweat and even a marriage or two into the bar.

"I'm sure there's something you can do to keep them taking this place." Catherine protested.

Rocco lit a cigarette. "Let me talk to my boss. Maybe there's something he can do…"

Everyone rolled their eyes; Catherine reached out and gave Rocco a slight nudge to get him to stop speaking. No one wanted to be indebted to Papa Joe. Glancing down to her watch and realizing it was no longer Saint Patrick's Day, Catherine finished what was left in her shot glass.

"Alright boys, it's time for me to head home."

Connor turned his head to look at the blue eyed beauty. "Can't hang with the big boys?"

In a rather impressive fake Irish accent, Catherine grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I suppose not. Connor, escort a lady to the door?"

"Aye."

Walking Catherine to the door after she bid her goodbyes, Connor stepped outside. The cool air which blasted their bodies had come quite unexpectedly. The two stood for several seconds in an awkward stance. In his head, Connor kept telling himself to man up and grab Catherine and just kiss her as he had been wanting to do for as long as he could remember. However, he couldn't find the balls and even if he had been able to, Catherine spoke up.

"Meet me tomorrow at the usual spot for coffee. 11 o'clock?"

Connor smiled and nodded. "Of course I'll be there."


End file.
